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Earl Williams (basketball player)

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Earl Williams
Phoenix Suns, Detroit Pistons, New York Nets, Boston Celtics, and Maccabi Tel Aviv
Positioncenter
LeagueNBA and Euroleague
Personal information
Born (1951-03-24) March 24, 1951 (age 73)
Levittown, Pennsylvania
NationalityAmerican-Israeli
Listed height6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
Listed weight230 lb (104 kg)
Career information
CollegeWinston-Salem State University
NBA draft1974: 3rd Round
Selected by the Phoenix Suns
Stats at NBA.com Edit this at Wikidata
Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata

Earl "the Twirl" Williams (born March 24, 1951, in Levittown, Pennsylvania) is an American-Israeli former basketball player.[1]

He attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Levittown, and then Winston-Salem State University.[1] In the 1974 NBA draft he was taken by the Phoenix Suns in the 3rd round with the 13th pick (49th overall).[1]

He made his NBA debut on October 17, 1974, with Phoenix, and played in the NBA through the next four years, also playing for Detroit, the New York Nets, and the Boston Celtics.[1]

On September 30, 1975, he was traded by the Suns to the Detroit Pistons for a 1976 2nd round draft pick (Earl Tatum).

Starting in 1978, he played basketball professionally in Israel for over a decade. In 1982, he converted to Judaism.[2] Williams also became a naturalized Israeli citizen, becoming a dual US-Israeli citizen.[3][4] He starred for a portion of the time with Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Holon.[5][6] In 1990, he was the oldest player in the league, at the age of 39.[7]

During the Gulf War in the winter of 1991, when Scud attacks from Iraq rained down on Tel Aviv and Haifa, he remained in Israel and visited and assured children, while also sealing rooms to protect the elderly from a possible chemical attack. He said:

I thought, I'm not going to leave my people when I was needed. Israel is my country just as much as America. Before converting to Judaism I was a Methodist, and I grew up knowing how to serve the Lord in the right way.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Earl Williams NBA & ABA Statistics". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
  2. ^ Robert G. Weisbord, Richard Kazarian (1985). Israel in the Black American perspective. Greenwood Press. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
  3. ^ "A whole new ball game". Pqasb.pqarchiver.com. March 7, 1991. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
  4. ^ "Israeli Basketball In Dire Straits". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
  5. ^ "Israeli Basketball Team Plays Despite Cloud of War". St. Paul Pioneer Press. February 22, 1991. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
  6. ^ "Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv wins Euro championship". Israel21c.org. May 2, 2004. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
  7. ^ Steve Leiobowitz (September 25, 1990). "Galil Stop "Upstart" Ramat Hasharon". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
  8. ^ "Hoops from the Heart". The Jerusalem Post. October 8, 1992. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
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